Computer and internet technology continues to advance at a breakneck
pace with little abatement in sight. Undoubtedly, this technology sector
has offered more bang for the buck for consumers and businesses
than any other technological advancement of the 20th Century. A few
personal anecdotes to prove my point:

My first computer, which cost several thousand dollars in 1980,
possessed 64K memory and mass storage consisting of two floppy drives.
With four floppy drives on the system (I purchased two additional
drives for $1,800.), alphabetically reordering a flat-file customer
database took in excess of six hours. The identical procedure on a
desktop computer system today costing around $500 would take at most a
few seconds to perform.

While a high school student, I recall having to beg my parents to drive
me to Philadelphia, over an hour away, to research a report on
spectroscopy because the local library had no references on the subject.
Such information can now be acquired on your desktop over the Internet.

Many of us remember making extensive use of the typewriter and the
slide rule in our earlier days. These devices are now virtually
extinct, replaced by computers, handheld calculators, personal
digital assistants (PDAs) and other mobile devices such as the iPhone.
Anyone using a typewriter or slide rule is considered to be an
anachronism.

Technology is always a mixed blessing, however, making our lives at the same
time both simpler and more complex. Computer and internet technology is
no exception to this rule. The rapid advance of computer and internet
technologies makes it difficult for the casual computer user and the
seasoned professional alike to keep up with new industry developments and
products.

In the not-too-distant past the main vehicle for real-time at-a-distance
communication was the telephone. At the advent of the Computer Age the
telephony system had become a widely-used, highly reliable communications
medium within industrialized nations. Problems were most frequently
limited to difficulty and expense in making overseas connections,
disconnected or poor quality long distance calls, caller misdials (usually
resulting in a polite apology — something rarely heard today) and a
very rare telemarketer who was always a real person.

Now, in the still fledgeling Information Age, our telephone lines are routinely
inundated by annoying recorded telemarketing messages and internet
connections enable our computers to be assaulted by spyware, viruses,
worms and hackers bent on doing everything from simply being annoying
to turning our lives into living hell by destroying data, pilfering
proprietary business secrets and personal information, and launching
denial of service (DoS) attacks.

The end result of the information mayhem accompanying the birth of the
Information Age is a steady increase in overall cost of the software and
hardware systems required to run and safeguard our equipment and data,
even as equipment costs per unit of computing power plummet. Furthermore,
the complexity of today’s computer systems and the amount of
knowledge required to operate them effectively leaves many computer users
baffled and frustrated by devices which should be serving as useful
productivity tools.

The situation will improve. Keys to reliability of communication in the
Information Age include education, standardization and the continued
evolution of the Internet as a business conveyance. In a business
environment, economics is the driver of innovation. The huge masses of
internet users and potential internet users hungry for information and
services delivered with the touch of a button or a spoken command demand
understanding and simplification. The economic muscle these users wield
requires that computers and the Internet evolve into a unified structure
accessible in virtually any place at any time — by anyone.

We are already seeing these changes taking place. Children today are much
more comfortable and capable with modern computers than are their parents
because they have been raised and educated in an environment that fosters
computer use. The adoption of the Plug and Play standard has made it
unnecessary for a computer user to know how the equipment he or she
is using actually works and has reduced the likelihood of adverse
interactions between system components. While not perfect, Plug and Play
promises to eventually free the user completely from the tedium of
consulting a manual each time they wish to install a new device. Operating
systems must achieve a melding with hardware and application programs that
remains elusive, while at the same time merging seamlessly with the needs
of the end user. eCommerce is just beginning to come into its own,
but is the driving force behind most of the computer and internet
changes we will witness in the foreseeable future.

The last 25 years have ushered in the Computer Age and seen the birth of the
Internet and the Information Age. Over the next 25 years we will
experience remarkable changes that will rival or quite possibly exceed
those having already taken place. Computer interfaces will be
incorporated into an ever increasing number of environments in which we
work, travel and play. The Internet will continue its expansion and will
be utilized for a widening variety of applications such as remotely
regulating household appliances and diagnosing the condition of your car
while you drive. Internet access may become entirely wireless as computer
usage grows increasingly mobile. It will be beneficial to be an end user
of these new technologies, fascinating to watch the changes as they occur,
challenging to keep up with them if your career path is in information
technology, and rewarding if you are an entrepreneur or investor positioned
to capitalize on the ongoing growth and innovation.

Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 3 May 2004, updated 5 December 2009.

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